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Sunday, November 24, 2013

Brigadier General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, February 27, 1862

CAMP PIERPONT, VA., February
27, 1862.

We are all agog with orders received to be in readiness to
move at short notice, and rumor has it that Banks above, and Hooker below, have
both either crossed or are about crossing. I have no doubt we are on the eve of
the long-expected operations, but the roads are not yet in a condition to
justify our moving, and public impatience will have to be restrained for a little
while. We receive very contradictory accounts from Manassas. Some say the force
is very much reduced, whole regiments from the extreme South having gone home,
refusing to re-enlist. Others say that no regiments have gone, but a great many
soldiers have gone on furlough, after having reenlisted. I presume the truth
lies between the two. I expect we shall meet with vigorous opposition, but I
trust our operations will be so conducted, both in the routes of approach and
our numbers, that we shall be enabled to overcome and defeat them.

Yesterday I received my parchment as brigadier general,
which shows I have been confirmed by the Senate.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George
Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 249